Microsoft is offering to pay $1 billion to buy the digital assets of Nook Media LLC, the digital book and college book joint venture with Barnes & Noble and other investors, according to internal documents we’ve obtained. In this plan, Microsoft would redeem preferred units in Nook Media, which also includes a college book division, leaving it with the digital operation — e-books, as well as Nook e-readers and tablets.

The documents also reveal that Nook Media plans to discontinue its Android-based tablet business by the end of its 2014 fiscal year as it transitions to a model where Nook content is distributed through apps on “third-party partner” devices. Speculation about the plan to discontinue the Nook surfaced in February. The documents we have are not clear on whether the third-party tablets would be Microsoft’s own Windows 8 devices, tablets made by others (including competing platforms) or both. Third-party tablets, according to the document, are due to get introduced in 2014.

Unclear how true this is. IIRC end of 2014 fiscal year is around this time of the year in 2014, right?

Reading this seems to say that Nook is going to stop building their own hardware, but will contract with another company to build a Nook-branded device. Kind of like Google working with Asus and Samsung for the Nexus 7 and 10. Why spend all that money on R&D to create something when your competitors can do it better? Seems like a non-issue to me, and calling the Nook dead a bit strange.

I wonder where this would leave the ereaders, if it comes to pass, I've just bought a discounted Simple Touch and would have been interested in an updated Glow.

The Techcrunch article says:

Quote:

Nook e-readers, meanwhile, do not appear to fall into the discontinuation pile immediately. Rather, they’re projected to have their own gradual, natural decline — following the general trend of consumers moving to tablets as all-purpose devices.

It sounds like just the tablets are affected and the e-Ink ereaders will continue for now ...

If the rumor were true (long odds) the idea would be that MS would partner with device makers the world over, licensing the reading software to be included on their devices, in return for an up-front fee (for tablets, PCs, and phones) or a share of ebook sales from those devices (for dedicated readers).

It makes sense for both sides.
MS fills-in their digital media business and B&N gets a nice chunk of change in return for a unit they don't know how to manage. (And MS gets Nook before Google gets over their Motorola indigestion and makes a play for it.)

But, assuming the offer was really made, I doubt B&N management is going to let go of "my precious" until they both hit the lava at Mt Doom.

The part I found most remarkable, was the speculation around Microsoft dumping the academic retail chain. I thought that other reports had mentioned that this was the most economically viable part of the company.

The part I found most remarkable, was the speculation around Microsoft dumping the academic retail chain. I thought that other reports had mentioned that this was the most economically viable part of the company.

Unless Microsoft wanted to turn the College bookstores into Microsoft hardware stores, I doubt they'd want to be in the B&M textbook retail business while executing a digital distribution strategy.